Jury Awards $4.2 Million To The Parents of a Baby That Was Born Brain Dead Due To The Negligence and Breach of Contract of Obstetricians
Miami, Florida, February 16, 2004 – A Miami jury awarded Gayle and Jorge Guerra, parents of Veronica Guerra, $4.2 Million in damages against Dr. Lourdes Ramon and Dr. Luis Fernandez Rocha for obstetrical malpractice and breach of contract, respectively, which resulted in the brain damage and later death of their newborn baby.
Gayle Guerra had major life threatening complications and hemorrhaging during her previous pregnancy, which resulted in concern for her safety during the delivery of their second child, Veronica. This concern led the Guerra’s to secure that Dr. Luis Fernandez-Rocha, a veteran doctor with more than 30 years of experience who had delivered their first baby, be the attending physician at the time of delivery, and not Dr. Lourdes Ramon, an associate of the practice who had 2 ½ years of experience. The Guerras were specific in the exclusion of Dr. Ramon because she had recently demonstrated questionable care in the delivery of Jorge’s nephew. The Guerras were assured by Dr. Fernandez-Rocha that he would be there at the time of delivery, even if he were not on call. Satisfied by his promise, the Guerras continued obstetrical care at the practice.
On February 1, 1996, Gayle Guerra entered into labor and called Fernandez-Rocha, only to find that he was out of town. Distraught and uncertain as to whom would be delivering their baby, Gayle and Jorge headed for the hospital. Awaiting them was Dr. Ramon, the one physician they had asked not to deliver their baby.
Gayle was admitted to Mercy Hospital at 8:50 pm. Her labor progressed normally and Veronica showed good signs of being a healthy, active baby. Some time around 1:00 a.m. on the morning of February 2, 1996 the fetal heart tracing began to show decelerations, which are signs of fetal distress. For approximately one hour, Veronica’s tracings grew more and more frequent, with deeper decelerations that were lasting for longer periods of time. Dr. Ramon remained in the delivery room watching the tracings, yet took no action to deliver Veronica, or prepare an anesthesiologist in case of an emergency cesarean section. At 2:50 am, after the baby Veronica had suffered eighty-six decelerations, more than forty of which were significant indications of imminent danger, the baby’s heart went into severe bradycardia and Dr. Ramon called an emergency cesarean section. When she summoned the anesthesiologist on call he advised her that he currently had a patient under a surgical dose of anesthesia and he could not leave her. Another anesthesiologist was located. He initiated anesthesia for Gayle Guerra at 3:05, 15 minutes after Dr. Ramon called for the emergency caesarean section. Veronica was delivered at 3:07 a.m. She had no heart rate, no respirations, poor color, no muscle tone, and no reflexes.
“This kind of negligence should not be tolerated,” said Ervin A. Gonzalez, attorney for the Guerra family. “A doctor is supposed to secure the safety of the patient and administer care before it’s too late. Imagine a Life Guard watching a child wave her arms in distress, go under water, come back up, wave her arms in distress again and then wait until the child finally goes under water for the last time before he finally jumps in the water to save her. That’s ridiculous and that’s exactly what Dr. Ramon did. She ignored the signs of distress and waited until it was too late to save baby Veronica”.
During the trial, experts testified that the standard of care required a cesarean section at 2:00 a.m., which would have resulted in the delivery of a healthy baby. The defense’s own expert admitted that had Veronica been born even a few minutes earlier, the time that it took to find an alternate anesthesiologist, that the Guerras would have been celebrating their daughter’s 8th birthday that week.
“This is also a case of a breach of contract,” said Gonzalez. “Clearly, experience was the difference between life and death for baby Veronica. Had Dr. Fernandez-Rocha kept his word and delivered her, Veronica would be here with us today”. Veronica Guerra was transferred to Miami Children’s Hospital, where she remained on life support. She lived 11 days and died on February 13, 1996, exactly 8 years to the date of the verdict against Dr. Lourdes Ramon for medical malpractice, and Dr. Luis Fernandez-Rocha for breaching his agreement with the Guerras to deliver their baby.